Thin films of rare earth doped alkaline earth sulfides such as cerium doped strontium sulfide have been extensively investigated for applications in full color AC thin film electroluminescent (ACTFEL) display devices. Such a device is shown in Barrow et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,427. The emission spectrum of SrS:Ce is very broad covering both blue and green portions of the visible spectrum, i.e., 440 to 660 nm with a peak at around 500 nm. A full color ACTFEL display device can be obtained by adding a red emitting phosphor, for example CaS:Eu or one that has a red component in its emission spectrum. With such a combination of films, one can build a white light emitting phosphor stack. White phosphor structures can then be laminated with primary color filters to build a color display which is very cost effective in terms of production.
With white light emitting phosphor stacks, however, the blue portion of the emission spectrum can be rather weak, particularly strontium sulfide phosphor doped with cerium which in the past has been the most promising of the blue emitting phosphors. Only about 10% of the original luminance can be obtained after filtering if a nearly blue color is to be achieved. For blue coloration in the CIE range of x=0.10, y=0.13 the transmission ratio is further reduced to only about 4%. Therefore, to produce a color display with acceptable luminance, it is necessary to use a lighter blue color filter but this in turn leads to a compromised blue chromaticity. Any display fabricated with such a poor blue chromaticity has a limited color gamut and is unable to produce the range of colors available with CRT or LCD technology.
Therefore, in order to achieve a high performance color ACTFEL display, the blue emission efficiency of the EL phosphor thin film must be greatly improved. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,344, Yocom, et al., a method is disclosed for forming alkaline earth sulfide luminescent films by chemical reaction between alkaline earth metal halide and hydrogen sulfide on heated substrates. Yocom, et al. does show a strontium sulfide thin film phosphor which has a more bluish color (CIE x=0.17, y=0.25) than an unfiltered SrS:Ce device. However, the luminance performance of the Yocom et al. device is not high enough for practical application. Experimentation has also been reported regarding SrS:Cu devices which are prepared by sputtering, for example in Ohnishi et al., proceedings of the SID 31/1, 31 (1992). The Ohnishi et al. device, however, is even dimmer than the Yocom et al. device (and no color data is available). Thus, to date producers of thin film electroluminescent devices have yet to produce a blue emitting phosphor having sufficient luminance for use in a full color ACTFEL device.